I’m Dr Ian Wyre and I started working with the Archaeology Data Service as a Digital Archives Assistant in May 2025.
I had begun my career working with Hampshire County Council museums where I fulfilled varied roles in collections management, conservation, education and visitor experience projects. As my graduate degree is in design I took on several heritage projects requiring accessible resources for our museum audiences. This, at the time, also included my creating 3D archaeological visualisations to go in our interpretation schemes. This would lead me in later life to research and build 3D spatial archaeological applications at postgraduate level with a real belief of the benefits such technologies can bring to the discipline.
Since finishing my PhD in 2016, I’ve been working in the heritage sector as a Historic Building Specialist, including the last 7 years with a commercial archaeology company where I completed a wide scope of built heritage projects. It was also a time where I could practically utilise and develop methodologies in different survey and recording technologies on some fascinating and important historic building projects.
Taking this experience, and to build further on my established skillset, I was keen to find a new position where I could continue working with heritage, whilst expanding my knowledge of digital archaeological collections. I had been awarded the MSc in Archaeological Information Systems at the University of York in 2010, so an invitation to return was an immense opportunity for me.
In the past 6 months the role has certainly delivered – seeing development of my existing skillset whilst learning new data management skills within the highest standards in digital heritage resource management. This, against the backdrop of the expertise and established ethos of the ADS, and the support from my talented and knowledgeable colleagues.
It has certainly provided what I wanted from the role – moving from the coal face of heritage work, as it were, to curating the end, digital resources we produce through archaeological practice, making these infinitely accessible as rich, sustainable online collections for the future.
The core of my work with the ADS thus far has focussed on the accessioning, processing and disseminating of digital archive collections first created in the field, being ingested into the ADS archive through to becoming publically accessible on our website. As my role grows I hope to continue to draw from my historic building background, possibly contributing to our archiving of significant built heritage collections and where advancing digital capture and dissemination technologies are utilised more commonly.
